Italian Jazz

Over the past year, I've read several articles on Italian jazz, with reviews raving about the quality of musicianship and music. Pianists, reed players, trumpeters, any instrument used in jazz, there are Italians wailing away with great music.
So I thought I'd take a chance on this CD I ran across on CDBaby, and what a great piece of music! Sax, bass, and drums, recorded (deliciously!) live, the music is innovative, refreshing, exciting, and exceptionally well played. No mainstream meanderings, free jazz futzing, or smooth jazz lobotomization, just real jazz, with strong hints of Ornette and Sonny.
Now I know why people are writing about the Italian jazz scene, maybe the most vibrant in the world right now.

Surf Music

Of course my little kinky musical secret is my love for surf music.  Somehow, an overly reverbed guitar really does it for me.  How a farm boy got the ocean bug is odd, but that's what the reverb does to me.  Or maybe it's just the clean guitars, the melodic tunes, the basic playing...  I don't know...  I just dig it.

Down in SoCal this last weekend.  On Sunday, the Huntington Beach International Surf Museum held one more in the perpetual string of surf music concerts at the pier.  I took all my recording gear down there (guess I should post sometime on the geeky stuff) and recorded a couple great bands.

The top pic (how do I insert pics where I want them in this blog?) is Madeira.  Ivan, on the left is one very fine guitar player as well as composer.  Love their music.  The bottom pic is Pollo del Mar from San Francisco.  Another top group involved in modern surf music.

And coming soon, next month, Japan's Surf Coasters are doing another west coast tour.  Shigeo Naka is simply the best guitarist I've ever heard.  Check out the Double Down in Vegas for a hot show from the Coasters.